Chapter 1: Before the Beginning

Way back before the beginning, God resided in a spiritual realm associating with some select spiritual assistants, which he called angels. After giving it much thought, he concluded that he needed to move forward beyond the spiritual realm and create a physical realm as well, a realm in which his creations, his children, could learn, make progress, and experience new-found happiness. Before beginning his creation of the physical realm, he called one of his favorite angels aside, Michael, and told him something of his plan and then asked him if he would like to assist. Michael thought about it for some time before answering and then said, “Dear God, you have to know that I will do whatever you want me to, but this whole plan is confusing to me. I mean I don’t get it or what and why we are creating this physical realm. I have no idea how I’m supposed to help you.”

God answered, “Michael, don’t sweat the details; I’ll tell you what you should do.”

“I just don’t know, God. I mean, like what would I be doing?”

God thought about Michael’s reluctance and lack of confidence. Was this really a good choice for an assistant? And God had no desire to interfere with Michael’s agency, with his free will to choose; so he said, “I’ll tell you what, Michael, you leave the creation part to me and maybe some others to help me, but the one thing I know is that you love tinkering with mechanics and how things work, and I think you seem to be a good story teller. So you can help me by relieving me of one worry.”

“What’s that?”

“You can be the scribe, the historian, the record keeper, of this creation project. You see, when it is all said and done, I would like to have a record of it. Indeed, I believe I will probably have to provide some story or explanation to my creations—my children. And I think it will make a terrific story.”

“So what? You want me to what—keep a record of what you do during creation and then report on it?”

“Yes, that’s pretty much what you could do to help me. And I think you’re the person to make it interesting—you know--a real page turner.”

Michael thought about it and added, “You know, God, I would like doing that. Can I just follow you around and keep track of what’s happening?”

“Sure, that’s what I want you to do so I won’t have to worry about keeping a record of it myself. I’ll be busy.”

“OK, and, dear God, this might be a good time to bring it up, but I’ve actually been thinking lately that it would be really quite spectacular if we had some way to make a visual recording of things that happened—to take pictures of events that we could then go back to and look at, and I think that the best story of this creation would have some pictures with it. I think that would make it the most exciting story ever.”

“Good idea. I knew you were the right person for the job. So go ahead and take pictures as part of your story.”

“Well, sorry for bothering you, God, but I’ve been thinking about pictures, and I don’t have anything to take pictures with. How could I do that? Actually, I have some ideas of how a device would work, if we in fact had real light to use. I’ve tentatively called it a camera.”

“OK, give me the details of your camera idea, and I’ll start by making a camera for you to take some pictures.”

“Well, sorry to bother you further, God, but actually, I also have some ideas about how I could take a lot of pictures very quickly, one after the other, and when we later looked at them as fast as I had taken them, it would look like a moving picture, like we actually were looking at what had happened, say in creation.”

“OK, Michael, give me all your ideas, and I will create a camera that will take moving pictures. But then I want you to work out the details of how you are going to make a moving picture—let’s call it a movie—of my creation of the physical realm. You don’t need to bother me with every detail. That is your job to work out the problems and figure out how to do it. But, Michael, just remember one thing. I would really like this…this movie story of creation…to be interesting, exciting, and awe inspiring—a worthy report of what will indeed be an awe inspiring creation, and a good story to boot.”

“Yes, God, I will do my utmost best. You know, I think I’m going to love this job.”

So God took Michael’s plans and created a movie camera. He added a few ideas of his own—digital recording, time-lapse photography, a lens that went from macro to extremely wide angle, and a low-light sensitive lens. He even added automatic focus and sound recording. And, importantly, he gave it an everlasting battery.

It took Michael, the newly anointed Cinematographer, a little time to get accustomed to his new camera, but being interested in the mechanics of things, in short order he became quite familiar with it. He then spent some time following God around as he planned for his creation of a physical realm and listened in as he instructed his other assistants. He practiced taking pictures of God and the other angels and trying out different angles, but when God caught him doing that, he called him aside and told him to erase those pictures and not to take any more shots of God himself.

After looking back at some of the footage he had, which was not of much, being as there was no physical world to film yet, Michael realized that he would need a way to transfer his movie to some kind of editing machine so that he could delete what he didn’t want in the picture, could cut and paste, and could crop the shots, perhaps enhancing the colors or zooming in on certain details, and he wanted to be able to add sound and dialogue even after filming a particular sequence. So he went back to God and asked him, “Dear God, I know you asked me not to bother you, but I’ve run into a problem and need another favor. I need some kind of editing and playback machine so that I can keep my original movie but then make a copy and make changes in it, you know, add things such as narration and perhaps enhance the quality. And I need to do this when I have more time rather than right during live filming. I need to try out different enhancements to see what would give me—us—the best movie, the best story possible. I have some plans here for such a device, and I was wondering if you…”

“Michael, didn’t I ask you to do this on your own and not bother me? I don’t want to have to worry about the filming and the story. But, ok, let me see your plans…OK, I get what you are trying to do. I’ll create this editing and playback machine for you, but then, please, do the rest of it on your own. I just want to see your product after creation is done and your movie is finished. Do you understand?

“Yes, God, thanks so much for agreeing to create this machine, and I won’t bother you again.”

“Michael, come back soon, and I’ll have the machine for you…hey, I love you, Michael, and I appreciate you doing this job. Give me a hug before you go.”

The next day, or whatever the time period was (time was pretty fluid, pretty loosey-goosey, in God’ spiritual realm), Michael returned to find his new machine. It was more than he could have asked for. It had a beautiful large screen with sharp resolution and colors. It had jacks and connections to plug into his camera to make transfers. It had all kinds of editing functions, sound recordings, an infinite amount of digital memory, and even connections to make multiple copies to small devices about the size of one’s thumb. God had exceeded Michael’s wildest expectations.

As Michael followed God around and began to grasp what he was planning, he thought to himself, I see two major problems with this movie project of mine. This creation is certainly going to take an insanely long time, whatever a long time is up here. (I mean, every time anyone asks God how long something will take, he’ll say something like “a day, but a day is like a thousand years with me.” He is just so laid back when it comes to time.) And clearly it will be an awfully boring story if folks have to watch it in real time. I mean, it would be like doing creation all over again. So I have to find some way to show only the highlights of creation. Otherwise, I will completely lose my audience. And so I’ll need to do some serious editing.

The second problem is that this creation project is going to cover not only an insanely long time but an insanely large space. How will I be able to catch the grandeur of the big expanse of creation and then all the minute details? Some way, I need to make this a more personal story, or I’ll put my audience to sleep. And there ought to be some plot, some arc to this story.

Michael decided that the way to solve the first problem—the long time involved in creation—was to use the time-lapse photography app on his new camera. He would set it to take a shot only at infrequent intervals when creation was taking a long time with not much action happening. He could speed up maybe a billion or so years into just a second or two. Then, if things got interesting, he could change the time-lapse frequency and maybe even film some parts in real time (whatever that meant). He would have to experiment with the time-lapse function.

To solve the second problem—the large space involved in creation—he thought he could use the wide-angle setting on his camera’s lens to shoot the big picture, without too much detail. But when some details got interesting, he could zoom in and pick up the nitty-gritty. That might also be his answer to developing a plot or some personal interest in his story. I mean watching light and stars and gaseous clouds swirling around would be awe inspiring for a little while, but folks would lose interest unless he included some cute animals and maybe some people doing things. So he began practicing with the wide-angle and zoom features of his camera lens.

Chapter 2: The Creation in Seven Acts

Finally the time came for creation to actually begin. God was ready and gave last minute instructions to his assistants. Michael was standing nearby with his camera on his shoulder and ready to shoot. And then it happened—a big bang—well, actually there was no atmosphere around; so there really wasn’t any sound—no big bang, but Michael thought the term big bang caught the spirit of the thing—the spirit of the physical creation.

Creation almost caught him by surprise. At one moment, all there was was darkness, nothing, and then, unexpectedly, a tiny, intense, bright light appeared in the velvety blackness and began to expand rapidly. As it spread out, colored lights and radiation emanated from it, and what with the speed of the expansion, some of the extreme energy became converted into matter. With his wide-angle lens, Michael captured the unbelievable beauty of this initial creation. He looked over at God, who was smiling and gave him a thumbs up.

Later, he added a sound track and voice over. First, he added the words: “And God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light.’ And God saw the light, that it was good.” Then he found a contrabass, his favorite heavenly musical instrument, and, just as the light appeared in his movie, he played an open E on the E string, the lowest note on the bass. He let it resonate throughout the heavens and touch all around him, and then he plucked an A followed by a C on the D string and resolved it with another, long, drawn out E with a big vibrato, this time on the G string, two octaves up. It was beautiful, and it fit in beautifully as the tiny light burst forth on his screen. Wow, what a spectacular start to the creation movie, better than Michael could have hoped for. God didn’t actually say anything; he just did it, but Michael thought his music and narration added a nice, poetic touch.

But then the creation dragged on for some time, like about 6 billion years, but whose counting? So Michael switched to extreme time-lapse photography and eventually shut off his camera for a period of time while he took a break. He also switched from extreme wide angle to a moderate angle in order to zoom in from the entire expanding universe to just one galaxy, the one all the assistants were calling the Milky Way Galaxy—indeed there were so many stars it was as thick as milk. Then he zoomed in even further to cover only one solar system. He figured this focus would sharpen his storyline and his story arc. At the end of this time, he did add the following comment to his narrative: “The creation of matter was in a state of chaos but filled with the building blocks of matter.” That seemed to be a hopeful transition to the next phase.

Michael decided that any great story was usually divided into chapters or acts, and so he decided to divide his story into acts as well. At the end of this period that he had been filming he decided to call it the first act, and so he dubbed this narration onto the movie, “And this creation of light from darkness was The First Day of Creation—Let there be Light…And now for Act Two.”

Michael zoomed in even further to one particular planet in the solar system—earth. As the earth began to cool over perhaps another billion years an atmosphere began to form, and water, which Michael would learn later was an all important part of God’s creation, rose from the earth as steam while liquid water began to form on the planet below. He added this narrative to his movie: “The water that was forming divided into the waters in the expanse above and the waters on the earth below.” He called this development The Second Day of Creation—Let there be Water.

God saw him fiddling with his camera one day and said, “Michael, how’s the movie going?”

“Really well, God. Do you want to see what I have so far?”

“Oh no; I want to wait to view it until it is completely finished. Right now I am simply enjoying the act of creation. What do you think? Isn’t it all just simply beautiful?”

“Yes, it is, but it’s taking so long. I mean, in earth time, it’s taking billions of years.”

God shook him off, “A day, a year, a few billion years—what’s the difference? Just chill out and enjoy it all.”

About 10 billion years after the beginning of creation, so much water had formed on earth that it began to gather together in seas and lakes and rivers, and dry land began to appear. Over the next few billion years, life began to spread throughout the waters. First, single cell organisms and then simple plant life became abundant. This was possible because the liquid water was abundant and cool enough for carbon chains to form. Michael began to slow down his stop action to pick up some of the details. He filmed some spectacular rivers and waterfalls, and he put in a nice touch of single cell organisms dividing and multiplying and some small, simple plants unfolding and growing. This is great filming, he thought. He called this phase: The Third Day of Creation—Let there be Land and Life. He loved the alliteration.

Because life appeared so early after water was formed and spread so exponentially fast, relatively speaking, Michael decided to ask God how that could have happened. God explained, “Well, I brought about a reaction that had virtually no probability of occurring by chance. I initiated DNA, the chemical key to life.”

“What’s DNA?” asked Michael.

God answered, “It’s complicated, but it is a complex chain involving amino acids and proteins that has as its main functions the ability to reproduce itself and to carry complex codes for forms and activities that can be set about by chemical reactions. Without this key, why would any chemical go about reproducing itself? This DNA will go on to power all the living forms yet to come. You wait and see; the fun is just beginning.”

Some time later, about 12 billion years after the first light appeared, Michael noticed that the murky, semi-translucent atmosphere was becoming clearer. Apparently, during the last two billion years when not much new seemed to be happening, all the life had been producing a critical mass of oxygen, which now wafted into the atmosphere and brought about the clear conditions. Michael, using his time-lapse photography, filmed the atmosphere clearing, and to his surprise there came a time when it was so clear that he could see the moon and stars at night and the sun during the day. What a beautiful sight. He would never forget first seeing the moon and stars sparkling in the night sky, and he captured it in his movie. He dubbed this phase: Day 4 of Creation—Let there be a Clear Atmosphere. That didn’t seem too poetic; so he added: Let the Sun, Moon, and Stars Appear—the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. Now that was shear poetry.

After about 13 billion years since the first light (of course, in local earth time), life forms had spread so successfully that the seas and lakes were swarming with life: plants still but also all kinds of animals, even large fish. And life began spreading to the land and to flying animals and birds in the atmosphere. Oxygen and water were fertile breeding grounds. Indeed, rather than normal evolution occurring, it seemed more like a revolution. All the major phyla of life came into being. Actually, in a short period of time—about a five million year time window—this wild flowering of life occurred.

So Michael had to turn down his time-lapse photography to zoom in on some of the details. He was able to get some good shots of sponges, worms, mollusks, insects, fish, and chordates—he particularly loved the reptiles and mammals. Then he zoomed in even further to capture some of the complex body structures that appeared in different phyla at about the same time. He showed shots of eyes, gills, and jointed limbs. And to think this all came from the DNA—the large genetic library—that God had told him about.

During one segment, he even filmed some amazingly large animals in the seas and on land. He called them “Big Sea Creatures” in his narrative but then added that they looked like terrible lizards. He was saddened to see that over time much of this abundant life saw its “day in the sun” so to speak and then became extinct. He was particularly sad to see the “terrible lizards” go. He later asked God why so many of these plants and animals had to die off and go extinct, and he mentioned the terrible lizards as an example. God laughed at his use of the term “terrible lizard,” but he said to Michael, “I want to give all my creations—all my children, so to speak—a chance to fulfill their measure of creation and to have joy therein. All have their place.”

In editing this segment of the movie, Michael thought that this could well be the high point, the crown of creation. He called this part: The Fifth Day of Creation—Let there be Abundant Life

At about 13 billion years, adding a few million, there was a massive extinction of life. Michael calculated that about 90% of the species disappeared. But with the demise of so many species, land animals, particularly mammals, seemed to steal the show. Now Michael slowed his filming down to real time to show bears and deer feeding in the woods, and lions chasing down the deer. He loved these animals.

And then along came primates and with them hominids. Now these were some of the most interesting animals yet. He saw how the hominids evolved to eventually take the form of humans. He mentioned in his narrative that these humans must surely be the crown of creation. They were so intelligent, such creative problem solvers. They stood upright so they could use their fore limbs as arms and hands and make tools with them. They had a sense of humor, a sense of aesthetics, a budding sense of morality, and a sentient consciousness of their life and the lives of others. They began to question what life was all about and what purpose there was to it. And they had a deep concern for their mortal condition and even greatly mourned those they loved when they died.

Michael asked God about these wonderful humans—what would become of them. God answered, “All my creations are my children in a sense, but these are truly my children. I have reached the point in creation when these children can choose right and wrong and can learn to be like me. They have the capacity to join me in pursuing the good, if they choose. I hope they do. They are ready to take on my breath of life as my spirit children. Michael, creation worked out, don’t you think? I think I will take a well-deserved rest. When you finish your movie, you should take a rest as well.”

Now at about 13 ½ billion years after the first light, Michael decided to end his creation movie. He called this period: The Sixth Day of Creation—Let there be Man.

But later Michael decided his creation story needed a better ending, more closure. So he called the last phase: The Seventh Day of Creation—Let there be Rest. For this act, he included some footage he had on hand of the beautiful earth and the many animals on it, and two hominids playing with the animals. He added the narrative: “And after God had created all these things and made man--both male and female--his children after his own image and likeness, he blessed them all and rested from his labors. He blessed the seventh period and made it a holy time, a day of rest and renewal forevermore. And God’s children multiplied and filled the earth.” Michael added some music at the end and then decided to take God up on his invitation to enjoy this period of rest.

Chapter 3: The Follow-up Story

After God and Michael and the other assistants had rested, God suggested that perhaps Michael should add another section as an epilogue about how God’s human children made out in the beginning years as God’s spiritual children. Michael asked God if it would be all right with him if Michael called an assistant to help him, as Michael was still quite busy doing a final editing job of the creation movie. God said, “Sure.”

So Michael called another angel, Duane, a good friend of his, to help him film and then add narration to the story of first man and first woman. Duane had been bugging Michael all along to let him get involved; so he jumped at the chance to be able to help out in this way. Michael taught Duane how to use the camera, the stop-action and the zoom, and how to dub in voice-overs to his movie. Duane began following around first man and first woman--the young couple, whom God had made his first spirit children. Duane called them Adam and Eve, and began filming what they were doing; while Michael spent most of his time working on editing the creation movie.

When they had completed the editing and the follow-up story, Michael brought the final movie to God and asked him if he would now like to see it. God said that he would. As they watched the movie together, God often smiled and sometimes even laughed. The movie brought tears to his eyes. At the end, Michael waited nervously to hear what God thought of the project.

God paused quietly for some time, thinking, and then he said, “Michael, you were an inspired choice for this assignment. This is a beautiful movie, a beautiful story. It is as if I can re-live it all over again. Thank you so much. I will be happy to reveal this to my children when they are ready to learn about creation.”

Michael exclaimed, “Oh, dear God, I am so happy and relieved that you like it. It is quite spectacular, I think, thanks to you, of course.”

God went on, “You realize that I didn’t say all the things that you quoted me as saying, and you realize that creation occurred continuously not in the six phases or acts that you inserted into the narrative. And I am somewhat leery of you calling them ‘The First Day,’ ‘The Second Day,’ and so on.”

Michael answered, “I know, but I figured that dividing the story up into acts or days like that would make it easier to remember and comprehend for those who see the movie, and I thought the narrative would help explain things a little better, and I thought the music might even enhance the beauty of the story—I mean, it needed some sound, and…”

“I get it, Michael, and I think the way you divided it up is fine, and I did like the music. I think that humans, when they see this movie, will understand that the acts—the days—are just there to keep it organized and that what we say is in many ways poetic and metaphorical and not to be taken in a strict literal, time sense. I mean they are intelligent beings; they wouldn’t be so stupid as to mistake this beautiful, poetic movie as a scientific report of creation. They would see the symbolism in much of it, I’m sure.

A little time later, when Duane had completed his movie of first man and first woman’s adjustment to earth life, Michael brought it to God for his perusal. Again, they watched the movie together.

Afterwards, God said to Michael, “It was a good story and had some beautiful filming, especially of first man’s and first woman’s interactions with the animals. (I particularly liked the scene of them playing with the three black and white puppies. You know, if truth be told, next to my human children, I think I like dogs best, especially puppies, but please don’t tell any of my other creations that I said this.) OK, where was I? Oh yes, some parts were terrific, but, Michael, I didn't like some aspects that you have added to this story. I mean, I understand artistic license and poetry and metaphors and all that, but what is this all about with the ‘Garden of Eden’ and Adam and Eve, as you call them, being kicked out?”

“Well, you said I could call an assistant, and so I asked Duane to help me film and narrate that part of the story, and he came up with that part.”

“Duane? Duane! What were you thinking, Michael? I mean Duane is a nice guy, but, of all the choices you had, why in heaven’s name would you pick him to narrate the story? Look, you were there when I first chose the man and woman from the hominids and made them my children. You must remember what I said to them. I told them that they were my children created in my image and that I wanted them to find joy in their lives on earth and to find joy in their children. I also told them that because of their intelligence and abilities, they would be able to have dominion over the entire earth. They could use what was provided for their good, but I expressly warned them that dominion did not mean they should misuse any thing or any other being--they were to be stewards over the earth, not greedy dictators. They were to take care of it and take care of all their brother and sister animals and all life so that all of them could find joy in their measure of creation. I also told them that in order for them to be able to exercise their agency, their free will, they would have many alternatives and choices to make, and I would not stop them or force their choices. But then I warned them that free will is not truly free if the consequences of choices do not matter. It is only free if there is actually a choice, and so they would have to live with the consequences of all their choices. Some choices would be immoral and would hurt them and others. In fact, some choices could end up killing them. So they had to learn to distinguish good from evil. I told them I hoped they would choose good and grow to be more like me. Do you remember me saying all that?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Well then, let’s review what you—and Duane—put in your narrative. You said, ‘And God put Adam in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.’ Well, I suppose this captures my charge to First Man—er’ Adam—to be a steward over all the earth and take care of it. It is not so direct, but I guess it captures that aspect. And you must realize that I see the entire earth as a garden—a virtual paradise—not just some place in Eden. But just because it is a paradise does not mean that there won’t be challenges and problems and certainly moral choice. But what a wonderful paradise we have created with this earth!

Then you, or Duane, said that I brought every animal to Adam to see what he would call them. Not exactly. I told Adam and Eve to learn about all the animals and discover what they were like so that they could care for them, not to be Lord over them. Then you went on to say that I took a rib from Adam and made a woman. Not so. Males and females were both there from the beginning and always part of my plan for hominids and particularly for my children. You made it sound like woman was an afterthought. If truth be told, woman came first and was the basic model. Otherwise, how could you explain nipples on men. But those points are minor. I mean, I get artist’s license, but this next part is what is the most troublesome for me. You said that I told Adam and Eve that they could not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Why bring in a tree, and why would I have said that? I wanted them to make choices and learn good from evil and learn about the consequences of their actions. How else were they as my children ever going to progress and become better and enjoy a fuller existence?

“Yes, but Duane meant that as a metaphor to show that…”

“No, wait, let me finish. You then took one of my favorite animals—the snake or serpent—and made him the villain in the story by tempting Eve to eat of the fruit of that tree. Why would you make Eve the culprit here? And why would you slander snakes? They are not so subtle or conniving as you say, and they are so beautiful, with their colorful markings and their graceful movements, and they do so much good in keeping a balance in the rodent and insect population. Now I am afraid this will lead to snakes forever having a bad reputation.

Let me go on. First, it is true if Adam and Eve are to learn about good and evil and gain knowledge, it can be dangerous for them. Second, it is also true that they will be on the path to becoming more like me—moral beings who can make moral choices. But you made it seem like I put all kinds of curses on them for choosing to learn about good and evil and become more like me. What were you thinking?”

“Well, Duane did this and said that…”

“Michael, you sound like Adam in Duane’s story: Adam blamed Eve; Eve blamed the serpent—just passing the buck. Let me teach you a lesson. If a parent has children, he or she wants to help those children to grow and develop to have a happy life and to become more like the parent. It takes time for that to happen. A good parent would want his or her children eventually to have everything that the parent had. I chose to be a parent to these children of mine. Wouldn’t I have wanted all that for them--for them to become like me and eventually have all that I had—all my joy and all my happiness--and my knowledge?”

“Yes, that would make sense.”

“So, this story makes me sound so jealous and selfish of what I have and makes it sound like what Adam and Eve are doing is so wrong. That wasn’t my intention.”

“Well, do you want me to erase this story or change it?”

“I have mixed feelings, Michael. Part of me would want you to start over on the story, but another part of me believes that I should honor my charge to you to make the decisions and use your agency and creativity to make this movie. In addition, like I said before, I think that my human children will be smart enough to see this as a grand metaphor—a poetic story that nevertheless contains some valuable truths. They couldn’t possibly see it as a literal account, what with talking serpents and a fruit that gives one knowledge of good and evil, and women being formed from men’s ribs. I think we should let it go as it is. You know, once we show this to some of my children, they will end up recording it and writing it the way they want anyway. Free will can be so complicated. So, I have decided to let it go as is. Thank you for doing this assignment, and thank Duane as well, but please don't use Duane as your assistant again. Let's just hope that this moral agency thing in my human children doesn't get out of control."

"God, you said that I shouldn't use Duane again as an assistant. Does this mean that I will get other assignments to help you?"

"We'll just have to wait and see."